Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies with a Twist

Sep242007

Spoon Cookies filled with Chocolate

A while back, I clipped this cookie recipe from Gourmet magazine, filed it away and forgot about it.
But in a fit of house cleaning, which is ongoing and never ending, I found the recipe in a crumpled pile under some old notebooks and 3rd grade homework. Before sticking the page in the recycling bin, though, I went overto Epicurious and added it to my online recipe box.

(And just to digress for one second, is anyone else as irritated with the “new and improved” Epi as I am? What was wrong with the old one? Now I sit and twiddle my fingers waiting for the pages to load and the annoying little pop-ups to go away.)

As much as I enjoy having some quiet time flipping through my favorite food magazines, they multiply like mold spores and I never seem to catch up. I make a mental note to remember a certain page or recipe, which everyone over the age 35 knows is a bad idea. All those notes end up in a dusty corner of my mommy brain, lost forever.

Since I’m still in the gather-it-up-and-get-rid-of-it stage ever sinceThe Big Flood, I’m liking the idea of flagging favorite recipes and menus on sites like Epi and My Recipes. They pretty much have every recipe that’s been published in the last decade available for free, so there’s no need for me to stockpile issues in the basement, where I trip over them. I even bought new recipe organizing softwarethat allows me to import recipes and their swell photos. I know! I’m all 21st century now.

Anyway, I’m glad I saved this one since they were so simple and fun to make. This is basically a shortbread dough made with brown butter, which is the secret to their extraordinary flavor. I love the little nut-like bits of browned butter in the baked cookie, too.

These seem to be fairly unusual; in my brief search for similiar cookies, all I found was one in a cookbook by Beatrice Ojakangas, The Great Scandinavian Baking Book. She calls them Finnish Teaspoon Cookies.

I chose to fill these with chocolate because, why not? My second choice would be some good apricot jam.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over moderate heat. Cook 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the butter turns golden, smells nutty, and flecks on bottom of pan turn deep caramel brown. A thick foam will form and cover the surface just before butter begins to brown – keep close attention and stir more frequently.

Pour the butter into a medium bowl set into a larger bowl of ice to stop cooking. Stir frequently until butter appears emulsified and opaque, about 3 minutes. Stir in sugar and vanilla.

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl; add to butter and stir until a dough forms. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and let stand at room temperature 1 or 2 hours.

Place oven rack in middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees.

Pinch off a piece of dough and press firmly into the bowl of a teaspoon. Slide the dough off the spoon and place flat-side down on an ungreased cookie sheet. Continue forming cookies and arrange on sheet. Bake until very pale golden, 12-15 minutes. Cool cookies on a rack 5 minutes before transfering to a rack to cool completely.

Oh, I have this issue! It’s from the one with lots of cookies on the cover– December 2005, if I’m not mistaken. The author claims they’re very popular among her friends. Did they scarfed up pretty quickly?

I still have this issue of Gourmet, and those cookies have become one of my holiday staples. They are soooo good! I have filled them with raspberry and apricot preserves and they are yummy! Did you try the author’s suggestion of letting them sit for a couple of days before eating? It really does make a difference (but it is exhausting fighting kids and husbands off of fresh baked cookies!). The grasshopper squares from this issue are fab as well.